From Guest Blogger Jenny Richards: Choose Your Kind of Eco-Home

The concept of eco homes is gaining more popularity and momentum as the days go by. People are growing increasingly conscious about their carbon footprints and are looking at ways to reduce it. Homeowners are building houses using environmentally friendly techniques and materials as well.

There are different kinds of eco homes that are available, depending on what materials and techniques that are used. One kind of eco home is built using natural and locally sourced organic products. The other kind is more of a self sustaining energy producing unit, using solar panels and so on. There are also Underground bunkers which are underground homes using natural materials.

Passive solar house

This is the kind of houses that generates and conserves as much energy as possible. Basically, the concept is building a house that is highly insulated, using various sources of heat to generate energy. The sources of heat include:

• The sun
• Electrical appliances
• People living in the house

This is the most elaborate and complex of structures.

Insulated Concrete Houses

ICF homes use new techniques of construction using eco friendly techniques.  In this, concrete is poured into pre-prepared moulds which are made of polystyrene. There are many advantages of this, including very short construction times and also very airtight structures.

Earth Sheltered Houses

As suggested, these homes are actually sheltered by the earth. These houses are best suited for very cold places. They are built either by digging into the side of a hill, being buried under the earth. Another type would be to have the walls covered with earth. This technique keeps the houses warm the whole year around.

Underground bunkers are a type of earth sheltered houses. They are built under the ground also as a bid to escape the pollution on the earth’s surface.

Timber Frame Houses

Timber frame houses are becoming more and more popular, especially in the United Kingdom. The technology behind timber frame construction has progressed in leaps and bounds. Because of the pre-assembled kits, it saves a lot of time to construct a timber frame house.

A similar process is involved in the post and beam houses. This is originally an old construction method which has seen a recent revival. You can basically get your home all constructed in the factory, delivered to the site and then assembled there!

Log Cabin Houses

These involve building the houses from timber sourced from specially managed forests. There are pre-prepared kits which can be bought and assembled on the construction sites. These are very economical as compared to other construction techniques.

Container homes

As suggested by the name, this uses shipping containers to build houses. Large shipping containers are used to build ecofriendly houses. Of course, you can make decorations and modifications to make them look less like containers. Also, you need to insulate them and they can be really efficient as eco homes.

Strawbale houses

In these eco houses, the walls are built from straw bales. These straw bales are sourced locally. This also means that the carbon footprints are reduced. While this is a cost effective measure, this form of eco housing can come with certain disadvantages.

Thus, there are these and more other forms of eco housing. There are also sod houses which combine the traditional sods dug from the ground along with modern construction techniques. These are usually water tight buildings which are warm in the winter and cool during summer.

The best part is you can mix up different construction techniques and building materials to create your ideal eco home.

About the author

Leah Michaels is an interior designer running her own firm. She specialises in creating environmentally friendly eco housing for her clients. Recently she designed a luxury eco home comprising Underground bunkers. Leah loves to read when she is not designing.